[Cinema] M. Night Shyamalan & Will Smith's 'After Earth'

I didn't know M Night directed this until I searched on IMdB...They haven't mentioned his name tied to this in previews in theaters or on tv.

 

Considering how much his recent movies have sucked, there's a reason it went from "M. Night Shamalayns" to "After Earth".

I was a huge fan of Signs and Sixth Sense but everything else has been hot garbage.

 

You wouldn't tell from watching it either. He is just jobbing on this. Any nameless director could have done the same job on this film.

That said, he did a perfectly acceptable job. Saw it yesterday with my son, and it was all right. My 12 year old son really enjoyed it, which is, I suspect, really the target audience for this.

 

It's official -- people are starting to question the theme of the movie... aka Scientology propaganda.

 

Didn't he direct Life of Pi? I freaken loved that movie.

 

That was 2 time Oscar winner Ang Lee.

 

close enough... after all they both asians.

 

I am certainly no expert on scientology, but I have done a reasonable amount of reading on it over the years, and after seeing this movie, I cannot honestly say that there was anything about it that resembled anything at all I have read about scientology.

So, what is it exactly that people are saying?

About the only thing I can think of would be the whole notion of 'ghosting' - when a person makes a conscious choice to lose all fear, which then rendered the big bad monster incapable of 'seeing' him/her (really, 'smelling', as in smelling the fear in the form of pheromones and other things which happen physiologically when a person is afraid).

Is that what it is?

If so, even if that IS what they are referring to, nothing in the movie points from there to scientology, so as propaganda, it fails completely.

Shrug. I had actually heard about the propaganda angle before I saw it, and so, especially since I was taking my son to see it, I was specifically on the lookout for it, and I just didn't see it.

My guess is, once again, a small number of people, most likely who have not even seen the movie, are the ones pushing this angle because they have an agenda of their own.

Now don't get me wrong - I despise scientology, and think it should be outlawed as a cult and all the higher-ups should be behind bars for all the purely evil things they have done over the years, so I am absolutely no apologist for them. But it's important to be fair-minded, and in this case, I just did not see/feel/perceive any sort of scientology angle inside the film.

 

One made a great movie about gay guys and the other just makes gay movies.

 

Obviously, Baby Smith is starting to think the same way I do.

Perhaps The Gimmick Of My Father And Me Starring In A Movie Is Actually More Annoying Than Appealing

When I was first presented with the opportunity to act alongside my father in our latest movie After Earth, I couldn’t have been more excited. It seemed like a surefire hit at the time—I mean, wouldn’t the movie-going public just be over the moon to once again see Will and Jaden Smith on the silver screen playing father and son?

But now that I actually take a step back and really think about it, I’m starting to wonder if maybe—and I could very well be overthinking this, so bear with me here—the gimmick of my dad and I starring in the same film is actually more obnoxious than appealing. And maybe not just obnoxious, but super obnoxious. Downright repellent, actually. In fact, I’m starting to think that instead of seeing the movie posters and trailers for After Earth and thinking, “Oh, what a cool idea, Will Smith and his son are acting together,” people are actually rolling their eyes and saying, “Give me a ****ing break.”

Now, I know that’s kind of a strange concept given the success both my father and I have had in Hollywood over the last decade. When I first started my career as a professional actor at the age of 8, I think people actually enjoyed seeing me work alongside my dad in The Pursuit Of Happyness. I guess it was kind of endearing in a way because I came off as sort of naïve and, to be truthful, I probably surprised people with my acting ability.

But I can’t help but think that maybe, somewhere along the line, when my wealthy, A-list celebrity parents began developing projects solely as vehicles to build my career and make the Smith family hundreds of millions of dollars richer than it already was, the concept of my father using his clout to shoehorn me into co-starring film roles might possibly have started rubbing people the wrong way. I can certainly see, for instance, how my dad contriving a $130-million Hollywood science-fiction film in an attempt to promote me to his level of fame and fortune could maybe come across as a tad self-serving.

In fact, maybe—just maybe—people might view the movie as less of a great film starring an actor they love and his lovable son, and more of a soulless vanity project. Or go so far as to say such blatant nepotism and hunger for fame is the biggest problem in Hollywood today, and in the United States of America as a whole.

It’s possible, is all I’m saying.

Let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that I was an average, everyday American consumer. Would I enjoy seeing an incredibly rich and famous man use his money and power to make his children incredibly rich and famous? Would I enjoy seeing the face of a young teenager plastered on movie posters across the entire nation, not because of who he is, but because of who his father is? To be totally honest, I’m not so sure I would. In fact, it’s conceivable that I might find it unbelievably infuriating and downright unbearable.

Then again, though, when I take a step back and really think about it, I guess there are maybe one or two things that my family does that could put off the general public. Like my parents completely manufacturing a singing career for my younger sister Willow, for example. Or my musical collaboration with Justin Bieber to promote my last film, The Karate Kid. In fact, one might say that my entire friendship with Justin Bieber, and the image of two very rich, very entitled teenagers hanging out until six in the morning may in fact hurt my overall image, as opposed to enhancing it. Does that make sense?

Come to think of it, I suppose it is entirely possible that there are a few moviegoers out there right now who are saying something along the lines of, “Actually, this whole movie seems really cold, calculated, and designed purely to raise the media profile of the film’s millionaire movie star and his young, precociously famous son. And, because of these things, I do not want to see After Earth at all. I’d much rather go see that dumb magician movie this weekend instead.”

Hell, one could even conceivably argue that my parents are doing me a huge disservice by giving me a career that I didn’t necessarily earn myself, creating a wave of ill will toward me that will be more or less impossible to shed for the rest of my life. And, as it were, maybe raising me and my sister in the glamorous, vapid cocoon of Hollywood and setting absolutely no boundaries whatsoever for us and allowing us to pretty much do and have whatever we want is not, in fact, a good way to raise children. You know, at this point, I wouldn’t fault someone for thinking that my father and mother have utterly lost their grip on reality and what it means to be a normal human being in today’s world.

But hey, at the end of the day, I’m rich, I’m famous, I’ll soon be getting my own house, and my newest movie will probably make millions of dollars at the box office this weekend. So who gives a **** what you people think?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/pe...ting&utm_campaign=standard-post:quote:default

 

After having seen this, I'm also confused as to where the Scientology references are coming from. I can't think of a single theme in this movie that parallels Scientology. With that being said, I thought the movie was far too simplistic compared to what it could have been. An hour and a half is simply not long enough to tell the story they were trying to tell. Given the plot line, it was disappointing to see just how MUCH detail and back-story they gleaned over. It felt lazy, and contrived. If they had the budget, or probably more appropriately, the DESIRE to turn this into an epic, it could have been special. Instead, they decided to use it as a platform to showcase Jaden Smith, and that destroyed the possibility of it being a special film.

 

This thing got beat by "Now You See Me". Ouch.

Our generation is going to have Will Smith's children shoved down our throat no matter how much they bomb.

 

I was going to say "Wow!" This kid is much more insightful and sophisticated than I thought. A level of respect grew on me for him... then I saw that the link is from the Onion

 

Hilarious After Earth FAQ.. spoilers though. I haven't seen it but I read the FAQ anyway because I don't care if I'm spoilered for a movie I might watch when it comes out on Cinemax.

http://io9.com/after-earth-the-spoiler-faq-511250161

 

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lol @ anyone who watched this movie

cant wait for man of steellllll

 

Good stuff, gave me a good laugh.

 

Movie was fine. Had some eyeroll movies, but I can't think of a movie these days that you can't say the same about.

I'm really not sure where the hate is coming from.

/shrug